Ready for MaDnEsS

Let me introduce you to my new best friend, 

the DENON DN-MC6000.

T.G.I.F.

From today on we start a new category called "Thank God It's Friday", where we will post every Friday about interesting weekend-events.

For this weekend we definitely recommend The Mansion Festival in Dublin, where home-grown and international DJs (e.g. Grandmaster Flash or Nina Kraviz) perform in the intimate surroundings of the Fairways Hotel complex - definitely weather proof.

In this spirit: Namaste and enjoooy the weekend!!!

Source: the-mansion-festival.com

You're welcome / De nada

BUNGA BUNGA was yesterday, today Silvio has other worries!

Source: mz-web.de

Asked at the press conference after Sunday's euro crisis talk in Brussels (23rd Oct.) "What exactly have you told Berlusconi? Has he shown you some engagement about reforms in Italy and are you reassured after hearing them?", Merkel and especially Sarkozy reacted spontaneously with a laugh, which caused indignation and brought Silvio Berlusconi's controversial person up for discussion again. But in earnest: How serious can you take a prime minister who is mired in and actually charged with corruption, mafia and sexual scandals, and even gets off checking the Danish Prime Minister's bum inside the great hall of the Brussels European Council?! Silvio Berlusconi is in the hot seat: Italy is right now, after Greece and Spain, the third biggest problem child of Europe's current debt crisis; hence Europe's heads of state and government expected the 75-year-old Cavaliere to bring some concrete reform plans for his country to the euro crisis talks in Brussels, which were till Wednesday in coming. With all these happenings, rumours about an alleged resignation of Berlusconi by the end of this year and a "secret pact" with his coalition partner Umberto Bossi appeared on Wednesday, which were demented by the Italian government immediately. Instead Berlusconi enforced the increase of the retirement age from 65 to 67 and presented a 14 pages long paper yesterday to the other heads of state and government, so he could leave Brussels (once more) with a figura bella. Again Silvio saved his neck - for now - cause his reform proposals are considered doubtful and their realization is challenged strongly, especially in the own country. The left-liberal newspaper La Repubblica for example called his paper a "book of dreams".

Beside the economical crisis, Italy also has to struggle with forces of nature in the North of the country right now. Heavy rainfalls resulted in severe flooding and landslides in Liguria and Toscana this week, whereat whole villages "disappeared" and at least nine lives were lost. Hard times are in store for Bella Italia. For a lot of Italians a general improvement for their country is only possible if Berlusconi disappears from politic. But fact is: As long as Berlusconi doesn't resign from his position as Italian Prime Minister of his own accord, it's gonna be hard to vote him out as he is not just a politician, but meanwhile also billionaire and media mogul, owning numerous TV channels, radio stations and newspapers in Italy. Even if many people smile at him and don't take him serious as politician, Berlusconi is the longest-serving post war Prime Minister of Italy and built himself up a safety net with enormous influences. Italy needs to come up with ONE serious and strong opposition contra to Berlusconi's coalition, so that the Italian people actually have an alternative government to vote for. As long as this doesn't happen, in my opinion no long-term political, financial or economical improvement for the country can be expected.

Sunday, not my favorite WEEKDAY!

On Sunday 23^rd of October, the Swedish brand WEEKDAY offered a Vintage Sale with prices between 1 and 8 euros, my first thought was “Hello I am in Berlin for the weekend so of course I am going to be there. I just hope I can get some cool stuff!”. So I went to the WEEKDAY store in Friedrichstrasse around 15.00 – so naive of me thinking I could still get something at that time on a SALE which goes from 13.00 to 20.00. But when I arrived a sign in the entrance received me with the words CLOSED/ SHOW IS OVER! Ooh yeah, it was a total freakshow, the place was more chaotic than my best friend’s room, also cops and even an ambulance were there. What happened? Tons of teenagers and not so teens prove one more time that we are animals, here driven by the desire of owning a piece of cloth (I have to say not just a piece of cloth, it was whatever they could get, the place was packed to a level it was not secure anymore), still don’t get why this massive riot for vintage clothes?! Anyway I have to admit I was a bit disappointed cause I left Berlin without a vintage leather jacket for just 8 euros (I’m not talking bullshit that was the price specified in the event’s Facebook page, I am sure that at least one of the almost 2400 persons which click attending to the event, got the jacket that I wanted!)

Here you can watch some videos from the day! (the videos are not ours, we found them on youtube)

PAISLEY is BACK

While half of our editorial staff is in Berlin this weekend, I'm creative alone... so I tried to gather some clothes and textiles from my wardrobe with Paisley pattern for a picture, cause PAISLEY is definitively BACK. I love this droplet-shaped flower motive, which was named after the town Paisley in Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland, but has its origin in the Persian Sassanid Empire, from where it was brought to India by Moguls. During the colonial era scrafs and other textiles with Paisley pattern were brought to Europe, especially to Great Britain, where it became popular. In the late 1960s and mainly 1970s the motive was very popular, particularly in Hippie circles. With the 70s revival the Paisley pattern made it back into today's fashion, but in a more minimalistic form. And also for the Spring/Summer 2012 season a new interpretation of the motive is announced: Both Jill Sander and Stella McCartney presented in their SS12-collections rather uncomplicated variations of the Paisley pattern printed on single-coloured pieces (see pictures below).

Sources: jillsander.com and stellamccartney.eu

Carlos the Jackal

My favourite TV channel, ARTE, showed the first part of Olivier Assayas’ film “Carlos” last night. The French film is a film biography about the career of Illich Ramírez Sánchez, alias Carlos, and I had to realize fast that I know practically nothing about this Carlos, who (after some research) turned out to have been one of the most wanted terrorists of the Cold War during the 70s and 80s.

Born 12^th October 1949 in Venezuela as son of a communist lawyer, Carlos grew up in a communistic influenced environment and joined the youth movement of the national communist party at an early age. In 1966 he moved to Europe, first London, and later for his law studies to Moscow, where he was expelled after two years because of “anti-Soviet propaganda”. In 1973 then the former chef of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Wadi Haddad, admit him to join the group under the name “Carlos”. From then on Carlos became one of the most active and thus most wanted terrorists of that time, being responsible for numerous attacks in the UK, France and also the OPEC-attack in Vienna. He led the six-person terrorist-team that attacked the meeting of OPEC leaders on December 21, 1975, where they took over 60 hostages and killed three of them. After that Carlos was thrown out of the PFLP, temporary arrested in Yugoslavia, assaulted attacks in London, Munich and Paris, was expelled from Hungary in late 1985, and ended up in Syria, where he was expelled too in 1991. He escaped to Sudan, but the government handed him over to French agents in 1994. In 1997 the French tribunal sentenced Carlos to life imprisonment.

There's some interesting material online about the topic “Carlos” and “terrorism during the Cold War”, such as articles published in the German magazine Spiegel from that time, which contain amongst others also an interview with Libya’s former head of state, Muammar el-Gaddafi, in 1976, in which he defines what terrorism is for him and denies repeatedly not to know neither about Carlos and his group, nor about other terroristic organizations of that time such as the Baader-Meinhof group or the Japanese Red Army. However one of the terrorists involved in the OPEC-attack from 1975, the German Hans-Joachim Klein, explained afterwards that the incident was planned independently by the group itself, but that the idea for it, the weapons and information came from Libya. It is well known that Carlos’ group is said to have had contact with the Gaddafi-regime.

ARTE shows the second part of the film tonight, starting at 8.15 pm.

Muammer al-Gaddafi reportedly KILLED

Source: aljazeera.net

Urban Outfitters: Mid-season sale NOW ON!!!

Music tip: SBTRKT

Source: SBTRKT.com

It’s not a secret: I LOVE CHANEL. And when I watched the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 Haute Couture fashion show presented 5th July of this year, I didn’t just like Karl’s new creations, but also the runway-music, and thought it’s worthy a music tip-post here. The fashion show started with “Go Bang”, went over into “Something goes right”, followed by “Trials of the Past” and ended up again with “Something goes right”, all songs from SBTRKT, real name Aaron Jerome, another upcoming musician and producer from London, who's first LP with same name was released by Young Turks in June this year. SBTRKT started as a DJ in East London and The Rolling Stone wrote he's "ambitious as James Blake, and freewheeling like the London dubstep scene he's lit up for two years". The "Bass Music-Mask Man", as reviewers call him, experiments a lot on his debut and his music is therefore (as with many musicians nowadays) hard to classify: The 11 tracks contain soulful guest vocals from e.g. Sampha ("Something goes right"), as well as dubstep-influenced rhythms and bass ("Wildfire"). Last.fm dared a "classification" and described his music as "a mixture of two-step, UK funky, dubstep, US RnB and Chicago house". I suggest: Assure yourself of his music style!

Here the official video to "Wildfire":

You're welcome / De nada

"Weed not greed" or "Capitalism isn't working"

Source: spiegel.de

Today is one of these days where I wake up and have the feeling something big is happening in the world. The Anti-Wall Street-movement under the slogan "Occupying Wall Street" started mid September this year in New York and spread quickly over other US-cities. But the events of today's day show: The Anti-capitalist-protests in the USA were just the trigger for a global reaction. In a lot of cities, e.g., Sydney, Seoul, Manila, Taipei and Tokyo, the people went already on the streets today to "initiate a global change", and protests in other cities on all continents are following today. Poster inscriptions as "Capitalism isn't working" are keen statements and show that the civil commotion origins in much longer time and occurrences than just the present economic crisis. The 15th October 2011 is on its best way to make it down to history. Let's hope that with today's happenings the idea of a global non-violent protest will be kept and that the 1% start to control their greed.

New H&M Conscious Collection

Source: fashionologie.com

While I wanted to have (almost) all pieces of H&M’s Spring Conscious Collection (but my budget was only sufficient for 4), I’m quite disappointed from the Autumn Collection. The 24 pieces are, beside the ones with big flower prints, quite monotonous and sad (well, it's an autumn collection), and don't meet my taste completely this time. However, my favorite pieces are the sheer silk and organic cotton blouse, the white lace skirt, and the pair of floral printed ankle boots. More of the collection has Fashionologie. I don't know yet, if I'll get one of these pieces, but I'll probably wait for the long-awaited Collaboration Collection from Versace to spend my money on!

You're welcome / De nada

Quotation of the day

Source: thedamienzone.com

Music tip: Lana Del Rey

Performed on Jools Holland last night, Lana Del Rey, real name Lizzy Grant, is suspected to be (one of) the biggest newcomer(s) of this year. The 24-year-old singer fascinates with her unique voice and beautiful appearance, despite injected lips. “Lolita got lost in the hood” or “Gangsta Nancy Sinatra”, that’s how she describes herself. Reviewers compare her voice with the one from Nancy Sinatra and Marianne Faithful, and also her look is Lolita-like, inspired by the 50s and 60s styles. With it Lana is the perfect example: Since long in pop business the question is not anymore if the past will be recycled, but only how it will be recycled. So far she hasn’t brought an album on the market, but on You Tube you can already listen to “Blue Jeans”, “Kinda Outta Luck” and on 17^th October her first single “Video Games” will be released by Stranger Records. Looking forward to hearing more, Lana!

Here the official video to “Video Games”:

You're welcome / De nada

In Bruges - Where are you Colin?!

9 a.m., eyes closed, just hearing the sound of the train, I couldn’t stop thinking of the beginning of the 2008 movie “In Bruges” starring Colin Farrell (Ray) and Brendan Gleeson (Ken) having the following conversation:

Ray: Bruges is a shithole.

Ken: Bruges is NOT a shithole.

Ray: Bruges IS a shithole.

Ken: Ray, we only just got off the fucking train! Could we reserve judgments on Bruges until we've seen the fucking place?

And that’s it; we were there, in Bruges, a city located in the northwest of Belgium and part of the Flemish region. Standing right outside of the train station, literally freezing our asses because of the strong Atlantic wind, we were ready to discover what the city can offer us. What to expect from Bruges? Well, honestly… the hotness of Colin Farrell, walking around the medieval streets of the city half naked and covered in Belgian chocolate – lekker lekker! That wouldn’t be a bad first impression, but it also will never happen (sad); instead Bruges offers you a very historic city centre recognized as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO with an intact medieval architecture, including the Church of Our Lady (1), the City Hall at the Burg square (2), and the Belfry of Bruges which you can climb and have an amazing view from over the city (3). The way up in the tower is quite narrow and those stairs are a total bitch (believe us), anyway if the weather is nice (not so often in Belgium) it is worthy the experience.

If you are not that interested in the whole thing of looking at stuff, sorry, I mean sightseeing, or your jeans are too tight to walk or cycle around the city, then go for a beer or chocolate (4)! We skipped the beer (sorry Belgium and your more than 150 types of beers, but it is not our cup of tea), and ended our Bruges-visit in a lovely café/lunch room (de Medici) (5) instead. But yes: One day in Bruges is enough! We don’t blame you if you get captivated by the city and decide to stay for an extra day, but don’t be so lame! Get a GO PASS and travel to Brussels (we did! But we will tell you another time about it...)! For now enjoy Bruges seen through our eyes…..

You're welcome / De Nada

Looking for FREEDOM

<< You know I’ve smoked a lot of grass

O’ Lord, I’ve popped a lot of pills

But I never touched nothin’

That my spirit could kill... >>

With this first verse of “The pusher” covered by Steppenwolf, originally written by Hoyt Axton, begins Easy Rider, the film that represents for many people one of the biggest production of the Hippie generation. Music, costumes, statics and last but not least the story of Easy Rider were a revolution during the late 60s in film industry, which helped initiating the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking.

Long ago the 60s taste has found its way back into today’s fashion and design world and offers a big inspiration source to present day’s designers. This post leads you through the film scenes with main focus on the actor’s costumes and styles.

The writers of the script are Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper who also play the two protagonists in the movie. Wyatt (Fonda) wears a leather jacket with a big American flag patch (which was auctioned for a “few” thousand bucks in 2007) on the back, a helmet with the American flag and also the tank of his bike shows the American flag – the character was inspired by “Captain America” (1). Billy (Hopper) however is dressed in Native American style with a cool fringed leather jacket, buckskin pants, leather boots and a kind of bushman hat (2). Together Wyatt and Billy ride their motorbikes through the USA looking for (nothing else than) freedom. The film tells about the places and people they meet on their journey. Amongst others they pick up a hitch-hiking Hippie, played by Luke Askew, who invites them to the commune he’s living in the middle of the desert. In these scenes of the movie a lot of colourful and interesting costumes and characters appear and the characteristic commune-topics as free love and self-supply are broached. Shirts with paisley pattern (4a), jeans blouse (4a), striped trousers, blouse with impressive collar (4b), poncho (4c), wool sweaters and colourful headbands (4a), all clothes that can be found again in today’s wardrobes. But the communards cannot convince Wyatt and Billy with their lifestyle, so that they continue their journey, from now on with some LSD in their pockets. They pass a small town where a parade is taking place and the two young men get arrested for “parading without a permit”. In the prison cell they befriend with the drunken ACLU lawyer George Hanson, played by the young crazy Jack Nicholson. To fulfil his authenticity as lawyer, George is wearing a beige suit with a burgundy tie and kind of wayfarer sunglasses (3). George leads them to a brothel in New Orleans where Wyatt and Billy pick up two girls Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil). In Easy Rider even the prostitutes have a good style: silver eye shadow (5), beautiful mascara (6) and big ladylike fur coats (7). The four escape from the chaos of the crowds in the streets and end up in a cemetery, where all four drop LSD and experience a bad trip. The scenes, screens and cuts during this part of the movie are strong and accentuate very well the intensity of the psychedelic drug. The next day Wyatt and Billy decide to continue their journey direction Florida. On the road two rednecks pass the bikers and decide to “scare the hell out of ‘em” – they shoot first Billy, then also Wyatt down. Wyatt and Billy, two peaceful young men, got killed for wanting nothing else than to be free.

You're welcome / De nada

Secretsundaze in the Belgian forest

Sunshine, good food, music, a caravan, Easy Rider and BOOZE - it's dad's birthday!!!

You're welcome  / De nada

Realisation

Sometimes you hurt the person you love most – often even without realising it in that moment. I know I will still go through a lot more confrontations and discussions in my life. But what I definitely learned this time: Think before you talk, cause by choosing the wrong words you find yourself in middle of the sh*t very fast. Nobody can read the other's mind.

Boldog szülinapot, Apu!

Take me home and feed me...

...cause I'm hungry and horny! 

Another blog in the overloaded Blogosphere was created today. But who are we? Maybe we're puppets in the consumer society of the so beloved ruling capitalist system - another two fashion victims? Maybe we're the heads leading the most powerful companies in the world in a few years? Or maybe we're just two shitbirds who have nothing else to do! But who cares who we are?! Nobody likes to be labelled. And we don't want this to happen with our blog either. Information and knowledge are power and we are definitely hungry for the power.

Check the original tune by Aziri & III, the video will wow you!

You're welcome / De nada